Unsurprisingly, the proper creation and maintenance of cannon is a lost art.

From The Barre Montpelier Times Argus (!) comes the worst July 4th celebration tragedy story of 2006.

Bethel man killed in homemade cannon explosion

BETHEL, VT — Police have released details about how a Fourth of July tradition turned fatal this holiday weekend for a 20-year-old Bethel man killed by shrapnel from a homemade cannon.

Several families had gathered near the home of Randy and Pam Trask in Bethel to fire guns and a homemade cannon on a makeshift firing range on the Trask property, according to Det. Sgt. Todd Illingworth with the Vermont State Police.

The weapon had been fired without incident about 200 times since it was constructed two years ago, Illingworth said, but early Saturday afternoon the gunpowder-fed cannon exploded and killed Colby Madden.

"It's an annual event where friends and families get together and they like to fire firearms, including this homemade cannon," Illingworth said Tuesday. "Tragically, the rear portion blew apart and projectiles went 30 feet directly to the left and to the right of the cannon and he was struck by them."

He said Madden was standing about 30 feet from the device.

Madden, a 2004 graduate of Whitcomb High School who lived with his family, was working as a carpenter in Bethel. He enjoyed sketching and drawing, riding his dirt bike, target shooting and classic automobiles, according to an obituary.

"He was just an absolutely awesome and very much loved person," said his mother, Pamela Drury.

Pam Trask was inside her home when the cannon misfired. After she heard the cannon fire a second time, she said, someone knocked on her door and told her about the explosion.

When she got to the field where the cannon had been fired, she found that Madden was unconscious and bleeding from the wrist, neck and mouth, she said.

"It is the worst thing that ever happened to any of us," said Trask.

Friends made rescue attempts before an ambulance crew arrived to take Madden to Gifford Hospital, Illingworth said. He was pronounced dead at 2:17 p.m.

Hartford Fire Department Lt. Chris Dube said he has heard about similar cases.

"The people who make them are probably not qualified to make something of that magnitude," Dube said. "That's stuff you don't play with. It's extremely dangerous to begin with, and even more so when it's homemade."

Illingworth said the cannon was designed to fire wooden dowels. The cannon is loaded with a palmful of shotgun powder, paper towel wadding and lit with an inserted fuse in the rear of the cannon.

The cannon had already been fired Saturday prior to the fatal accident.

"I'm not looking at this as a criminal incident," Illingworth said. "I'm looking at it as very tragic accident. The investigation will continue, but that's not my focus."

He would not say who owned the three-foot long cannon with a 2-1/2 inch diameter barrel, but he said the weapon did not belong to the Trask family.

Madden was not a resident of the property where the cannon was fired.

"We all have our hobbies and they like firearms and cannons. A lot of people have homemade cannons — this isn't an unusual hobby. It's just a reminder that we always must be safe whenever we're dealing with any kind of explosives, be it on July Fourth or any other day."